āsīvisa Sutta/Vagga

1. āsīvisa Sutta.-Preached at Sāvatthi.

Man has to tend four snakes of fierce heat and fearful venom -

• the four mahābhūtas; he is constantly followed by five murderous foes -
• the five upādānakkhandhā; he is pursued by a murderous housebreaker with uplifted sword -
• passionate desire (nandirāga); while trying to escape them, he wanders into an empty village, where everything is empty -
• the sixfold personal sense sphere (ajjhattikāyatana), and into it come village-plunderers -
• the six fold external sense-spheres (bāhirāyatana.) Fleeing from there he comes to a broad sheet of water beset with danger on the hither side; the further side is secure from fear, but there is no boat and no bridge -
• the fivefold flood (ogha), the hither shore being sakkāya and the further shore nibbāna.

S.iv.172-b.

2. āsīvisa Sutta.-There are four kinds of snakes in the world: the venomous but not fierce, the fierce but not venomous, the one that is both and the one that is neither. Similarly there are four kinds of persons: the one quick to get angry but with short-lived anger, the one slow to get angry but with lasting anger, etc. (A.ii.110-11)

3. āsīvisa Vagga.-The nineteenth chapter of the Salāyatana Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikāya. J.iv.172-204.

Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, G P Malalasekera (1899-1973), which is available as printed version from